New Xena user questions

[Alex Huber]

Yes, sound is one of the challenges that I have found with Xena (one of many challenges, I might add).

I’m not 100% sure but I do not think the Xena board will output computer sounds, After Effects sound, or sound from audio production software such as SOundForge or Audition. At least I have not been able to get it to do so. If anyone HAS, would love to hear about it (and how it was done).

I dont exactly have two sets of speakers, but I do have two different channels on my Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer (L and R for Xena, L and R for computer). So yes I suppose if you were not using any kind of mixer at all then yeah you’d need two sets of speakers.

[David Mack]

It doesn’t work with Audition?!?!! My current system (Blackmagic), that I’m moving away from (to Xena) does that – that would be a real shame! Is this really true?!?

With CS3 coming out and Soundbooth being part of production bundle – I wonder whether this will be ‘fixed’- at least for soundbooth in CS3?

[Todd Terry]

[David Mack] “It doesn’t work with Audition?!?!!”

Like Alex I’ve never been able to get it to work with Audition either (even with Xena ASIO properly selected).

When I inquired of tech support at the company that built my system I was told something like, “Hmmm, I think it should do that. Probably. Hmmm, I dunno. Maybe not.” Very helpful, guys.

It’s a pain in the butt and I wish it were corrected (and will accept any sugguestions on how do to do), but frankly that is so far down on my list of “Xena Issues” and hoops that I have to jump through that I haven’t worried too much about it.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Hkingy]

Interesting, I got Audition to work through the AJA card by selecting the Xena ASIO setting. I’m not at work right now but I’m pretty sure we got that part working properly. And this is with the Tryout version of the software.

I’ll check and let you guys know for sure tomorrow.

The audio mixer solution is a good workaround if we keep the AJA card. Just need to know if there is an AJA preset in Premiere Pro 2.0 for 720×486 1.2 pixel aspect ratio NTSC project.

We just installed the 2.6 drivers today.

Harlan

[David Mack]

Hi Harlan,

Yeah – do let us know, I’d like ot hear that it works and it would seem so do others…. I actualy sent AJA tech support this exact question but haven’t heard back yet.

[Hkingy]

David, I’ve confirmed that the sound from Audition on our system does go through the Xena card. In the EDIT menu, select AUDIO HARDWARE SETUP and choose Xena ASIO for the Audio Driver in the Multi-Track tab and the Edit View tab at the top of the window when selecting the driver.

There’s another tab called Surround Encoder that also has it’s own driver output settings. Since I’m not doing any surround mixes, I’ve left that driver setting on Audition Windows Sound. This should get you up and running.

By the way, I’m using Adobe Audition 2.0 if that makes any difference.

Harlan

[Todd Terry]

Yeah, that’s exactly what we tried some months ago, with no luck. I just now tried it again, same results.

Actually when I try to select Xena ASIO in Adobe Audition 2.0 I get this warning box:

…I’m recalling now that it was at this point the support guy at Promax (who built our Aja-based Boxx system) gave me the “Hmmm, I guess that won’t work” response. Very helpful.

Am wide open to any ideas here…

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Thad_h]

Hi Harlan,

Regarding your question number 1: Are you capturing from either a 486 wide deck or planning to deliver a 486 wide deliverable? If so, can you explain your workflow so I can make a recommendation for you? Mainly, what are the devices you’ll capture from and output to?

Question 2: AE 7 wont use the ASIO driver which the XENA card uses. However, you may be pleased with the release of AE CS3. Note: This is not a function of the XENA card, but of After Effects

Question 3: The XENA card cannot be set as the default windows audio device. It uses a different kind of Audio driver that is better suited for the post applications which we plug into.

Regarding Adobe Audition and the impending Release of ‘Soundbooth’: The XENA ASIO driver already works in Audition. Simply select the XENA ASIO in the Audio hardware setup to use the XENA as your output device instead of your sound card. Its worth noting that the XENA LH will output 2 channels of audio over the AES or analog outputs, but will output more channels over SDI. The XENA 2K however will output 8 channels over AES. This being the case, the soundcard might be a better monitoring device if you are doing a 5.1 mix.

AJA XENA Support

[David Mack]

Harlan,

Thanks for that – appreciated!

Looking forward to getting the Xena system and FINALLY getting image sequences to (hopefully) play straight off the timeline….. Just hope that HDP converter is good and then I’m good to go!

[Hkingy]

We capture 16:9 anamorphic Beta SX SD footage through SDI which is NTSC D1 720×486 1.2 pixel aspect ratio and output to the same.

So in our Decklink system, when you start a new project in Premiere, there is an NTSC D1 720×486 1.2 aspect codec(and a few others).

On our AJA system when you start a new project under the codecs, I’ll go to:

AJA Xena SDI—>
Xena LH-LHe—>
SD—>
720x486i @ 29.97fps

Then clicking into the CUSTOM SETTINGS tab, the only option for pixel aspect ratio is 0.9 which is 4:3. This is our main problem. We need 1.2 pixel aspect ratio which I can do in our Decklink system. An interesting note though, After Effects 7 on the AJA system can output a 720×486 1.2 aspect comp perfectly but I don’t want to be doing all my video editing in After Effects.

Is 4:3 the only option for 720×486 footage in Premiere or should I be using another one of the presets to work with my widescreen footage? Any insight would be great!

Also thanks for your answers to my #2 and #3 questions.

Harlan